Decoy Totem or spell/skeleton totem better for keeping stuff busy?

Title says it all really :) I'm a fire caster templar and I've only ever used decoy as it does a nice job of clumping everything up. I see a lot of people use spell totem/Skeletons though. Would this work better in the long term? Quality gems considered etc. Thanks all!

Spell Totem - Skeletons have the advantage of spawning a constant stream of elemental resistant skeletons (or statues if you must) allowing you to reposition the totem itself such that it never takes damage.

Given the scaling nature of skeletons plus the fact that you can augment them with whatever you please (at the cost of sockets), I would seem to think that it would be the better choice sans the fact that it does not guarantee that it'll draw aggro away from you.

The short answer is: If you have invested enough points in the passive tree for the skeletons to actually matter, they're probably the better choice. 'Matter' in this context can mean 1) The skeletons actually have enough life to survive a few hits and can therefore effectively block tight spots and shield you, 2) The skeletons at least survive long enough to land one hit of their own and have support gems such as blind, or 3) you have minion instability and just love blowing stuff up.

I use skeleton totem with faster casting (3 link) as a ranger.
0 points invested in minions, skill gems are leveled.

Compared to my leveled decoy it's much better.

Ok, thanks all. I will have Zero minion nodes with the possible exception of Lord of the Dead(it's right there and it looks like a fairly decent 1 point investment) I guess I'll really have to test them out. I do not mind buying quality gems of any sort to give the skellies a nice boost. Spell totem + Summon skellies + Minion health + minion damage my best bet? Thanks all!

Swap minion damage out for faster casting. It improves both your and the totem's cast speed.

I prefer skellytotem also, if you manage to get a few skellies out, the totem will be safe enough to keep summoning them and keep the heat off you.

Skelly totem is probably the best but another good alternative I tried as bow duelist in closed beta was Shockwave Totem + Added Cold Damage, knockback + chill/freeze meant only ranged mobs was able to kill the totem and as an added bonus it did lots of damage too, more than skelly totem. It would probably be even better with faster casting but never got that gem in CB.

Decoy Totem dies too fast. I cast a Spell Totem + Skeleton behind me and it keeps spawning skeletons. Link with Minion Life and Faster Casting gem for extra win.

Cool, thanks all! Lot of good ideas here. I'm going to work towards buying some quality gems for that spell/skelly setup now. The shockwave one sounds fun to, might have to give that a try with some zero qual gems just to see how that works out. Thanks!

Definitely skellies.

They do not taunt, but once you reach ruthless and merciless, all that matters is that when they get 1 shot they get summoned back instantly and start drawing attention again. Decoy totem will just get 1-2 shot and be gone. Whereas with summon skellies, you have the 4 respawning skellies and the totem to draw attention all at once.

I had to start using the summon skelly totem once I hit hit ruthless on my fire witch. Makes a massive difference, and if they end up nerfing it i'l be SOL from what I've seen without it.